Former Syracuse football coach Greg Robinson back on the hot seat?

AP, 2009Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Robinson, left, talks to head coach Rich Rodriguez during their game against Purdue last November.

The No. 21 Michigan Wolverines had a close call against UMass on Saturday, and the defense took the brunt of the post-game critiques.

"We just didn't look like we were prepared to play and we didn't make adjustments during the game," linebacker Craig Roh told The Associated Press.

On ESPN after the Wolverines' 42-37 win over UMass, Mark May told fellow analysts Lou Holtz and Rece Davis he believes Rich Rodriguez will have to fire defensive coordinator Greg Robinson, the former Syracuse head coach, if he wants to keep his job.

In an OpEd piece, Lawrence Velvel takes Rodriguez to task for hiring Robinson in the first place, considering his dismal record at Syracuse.

Velvel suggests the Wolverines are going to "pay the price" in Big Ten play: "Michigan's football future does not look too bright in the Big Ten this year, unless a miracle happens and Greg Robinson somehow teaches Michigan's porous to play defense within, say, less than two weeks, when Michigan plays Michigan State."

Detroit News columnist Bob Wojnowski adds, "Either Greg Robinson has to get aggressive and creative with blitzes and take his chances, or he has to try even more young talent. He has to do something because, like I said, this won't work, not in the stinky trenches of the Big Ten."

"Robinson has not distinguished himself at all in his 14 games in Ann Arbor, so this certainly isn’t meant to lionize the defensive coordinator. But the worst part of the game Saturday had nothing to do with scheme. It had nothing to do with positioning. And it had very little to do with coaching. It had everything to do with brute force. Michigan was just pushed off the line of scrimmage, almost at will," writes Samuelsen. "As a group, this defense is not very good. And I don’t see how a different defensive coordinator can make that any better."